Fishermen urged to sign up for free safety refresher

Published:05:00Sunday 16 February 2014

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The organisers of safety at sea training courses are giving fishermen in Scotland the opportunity to refresh their basic safety knowledge for free as part of its ongoing work to make the industry safer.

Seafish, the industry authority on seafood, has extended an offer for fishermen to re-attend its basic safety training courses until March 31 via funding made available from the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA).

The safety training courses cover firefighting, first aid, safety awareness and sea survival with legislation requiring fishermen to complete these courses just once, usually at the beginning of their career, with the exception of safety awareness which is required to be completed two years into their fishing career.

Seafish and the MCA, along with other supporters including the Scottish Fishermen’s Trust, Trinity House and Seafarers UK, are working together to make further training more readily available to those already working in the industry in Scotland to ensure awareness of safety remains a priority.

Lachie Paterson, training manager at FITA, a Seafish Approved Training Provider, said: “Fishermen should grab this opportunity of free refresher training with both hands. All fishermen owe it to themselves and their crew mates to be up to speed about their safety at sea.”

Derek Cardno, Marine Safety Officer at the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said: “We are committed to making our industry safer through more training and we encourage fishermen to take up the offer of free refresher training before the deadline.

“Many fishermen have spoken about how they have used their learnings from the course in difficult situations and we fully support this Seafish initiative to improve awareness of safety at sea.”

Anyone interested in attending the basic safety training courses should contact their local Seafish Approved Training Provider or Richard Wardell at Seafish at Richard.wardell@seafish.co.uk.